Too Much Junk Food!

Have you ever read the Berenstain Bear's book, Too Much Junk Food?  Well, last week I had my mama bear "Too Much Junk Food" moment.  I actually witnessed my husband bribing our daughter with a cupcake to eat a cookie.  I knew we had gone off the deep end.

A quick bit of background - The past 5 months have been a little rocky with our 4 year old daughter and in an effort to get the simplest tasks accomplished, we began using sugar as a bribe.  I knew it wasn't good, but it was necessary for survival.  But now things are better and clearly our daughter has learned how to maximize the sugar consumption, and I'm just so tired of saying, "No" all of the time.

So I pondered.  How do we solve this dilemma without creating total family meltdown?  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's always the fear when you take away your easy parenting tool, right?

Here's my solution - I decided to implement a sugar chart.  It's pretty easy.  Each of the normally consumed sugar items (sugar cereal, cookies, ice cream, etc) has a point total.  For example, pancakes are 3 points.  Yogurt is 1 point. Each child gets 4 points a day of sugar during the week and 6 points a day on Saturday and Sunday.  Oh, and you can earn 1 point if you eat a serving of veggies!

So how's it going?  So far so good.  This morning she asked for goldfish (which is 1 point) but then also wanted a piece of the Juicy Fruit gum (she earned a piece of gum for something else) her grandmother gave her (also 1 point).  I explained that if she chose the Juicy Fruit instead of the sugar-free gum, she wouldn't have 3 points left to get frozen yogurt after dinner tonight (this is also a good math tool).  Amazingly, she peacefully chose the sugar-free gum and all was well.  I didn't have to say no.  She made the choice.  And far less sugar is being consumed!  Granted, our daughter usually responds well to new things like this, because it seems kind of fun.  So the real test is how is it going in two weeks.  I'll report back!

Celebrating Successes!

So I had a huge success this week.  I officially launched my website - Piece of Cake Parties!  I've been working on this (with lots of help from my husband) for the past year.  It has definitely been a labor of love - a lot of work and stress that hopefully will eventually benefit our family, but for the past year has added a lot of additional stress on the family.
I have the tendency to just focus on the goal.  And as soon as I accomplish the goal, I set a new goal and go back to work.  I never give myself permission to relax and celebrate accomplishments.  I want to but it I have a hard time relaxing when I know there is work to do.  This is definitely a weakness personally and in my parenting.  Even with my kids, I say "Awesome!  Great job!" but then we are on to the next thing.  Okay, you stayed in your bed all week.  Now let's see if you can stop whining for a week.  Ha, just kidding.
So with the launch of Piece of Cake Parties, I'm giving myself a few days off to celebrate and enjoy our accomplishment.  There is a lot more to do, but I know I need to appreciate this win.  And hopefully, I'll discover a great celebratory feeling that reminds me to do this more in the future - my family and kids will appreciate it!

Managing the Chaos

I remember friends describing having a second child as "chaos."  I thought naively they must be exaggerating.  After all, clearly I had mastered having one child - we had kept her alive until age two.  How much harder could it be to have another one?   Well, once child number two learned how to walk, I learned what "chaos" meant.  For the past seven months, we have felt like we are in a constant state of chaos.  Even if things are technically under control, you always feel like you are just 10 seconds away from everything spiraling downward.   

This past week, we visited some friends who have children who are ages eight and six.  (AHHHH.  What a sense of calm.)  Well, our friends offered some perspective.  From their perspective, it didn't look as chaotic as we felt it was.  So that said to me at least 25% of the chaos (maybe even 50%) is just our anticipation of chaos. To be fair, it is human nature to learn from past behavior.  But nevertheless, I decided our assignment for the next week is to loosen up - and not worry about the chaos until it occurs.  And hey - what's the worse that could happen?  As long as everyone is alive and the house hasn't burned down, we'll make it through.  And maybe our children will make it to ages eight and six and we, too, will experience the wonderful sense of calm and peace that appears to occur then.

Entertaining a Toddler - Part 3

I inadvertently discovered this trick - but wow, was it awesome!  Our family is taking a trip this week, which will require all four of us to be on an airplane - about the worst place imaginable to be with a toddler.  Anyway, I was preparing a bag of tricks and surprises to keep my son entertained on the plane.  I was putting everything in a new roller backpack (similar to the one his sister has).  Well, my daughter and my son found the roller backpack in my closet on their own and were immediately entertained!  I got my daughter's roller backpack out, too, and seriously, the two of them walked/ran through the house with their backpacks for 30 minutes.  They didn't destroy anything.  They didn't hurt each other.  They just had a blast pushing the backpacks through the entire house.  So if you have a toddler (and hard wood or tile floors) - get him or her a rolling backpack!  Tons of fun!

I'm Adding "Plan Time for Me" to my To-Do List

The past few months have been stressful at our house - a toddler, an intense 4 year old, two full-time jobs, and a new business.  And I basically feel like there is so much to do, I can't rationalize taking time to relax.  Even if I did take the time, I would feel too guilty and to preoccupied to actually relax.  Normally, running helps clear my head but lately, my runs are filled with making to-do lists in my head...so sadly, I finish the run feeling more stressed than when I started.

So what's a girl to do?  I want to stay sane.  I want to have some remaining patience with my kids, and I want to get my business launched - because there is a direct correlation between that and my stress level.  

I could ask my husband to do more but hey, he's already doing a lot and making him more stressed just makes me more stressed.  I could ask my toddler and four year old to do more - ha, ha, ha.  Oh, that actually made me laugh out loud.  

So I've decided to try a highly recommended tactic - literally give myself the assignment of doing something relaxing (i.e. a massage).  For some reason, if I take the fun out of things by making it an assignment, then, I feel less guilty and entitled to do it.  So it is now on my calendar once a month - "Plan 4 hours to do something selfish and relaxing."  Hey, the calendar says I have to do it.  

Does the iPhone5 Really Make you More Powerful?

So I'm sure you've seen Apple's new campaign promoting that the iPhone5 makes you more powerful.  You know, one of the ads has the crazy song about chicken fat?  Which incidentally, that is a real song recorded in the 60's during the JFK administration to motivate kids to exercise in school.  Nothing like telling you to get rid of chicken fat to get you going!
Anyway, I digress.  So every time I see the parenthood iPhone5 ad, it actually makes me feel MORE OVERWHELMED rather than more powerful.  I'm lying in bed finally relaxing and then, BAM.  I see that ad and think about the craziness of the day and the craziness of tomorrow.  Oh and I'm thinking "Should I be searching for all of these amazing apps to make me a better parent?  Should I add that to my to-do list tomorrow?"  Then, I think "Well, they also have an ad about chicken fat, so I'm not going worry too much about this," and I go to sleep.
What do you think?  Does the iPhone5 simplify your life?  Are there some amazing wonderful apps out there I should be using?

Idea Number 2 for Entertaining a Toddler

Keeping with the easy, one idea at a time -- here's number 2!

Connect 4!  Yes, I know it says it's for 6 years+, but toddlers who at least have the fine motor skills to put the checkers in the board LOVE it!  I confess I read this idea somewhere awhile ago and kept meaning to try it have forgotten.  But this weekend, my daughter was playing with this game with her granddad.  Our 18 month old son began observing the fun and quickly wanted to join in.  Fortunately, our daughter loves entertaining him, so she loved that he wanted to play.  The two of them sat there for 10 minutes uninterrupted making designs together in the Connect 4 board.  So cute!  So easy!